Capt. Katie McMahon of the Butler County Sheriff's Office at a rally. Tammie Norris, right, and Candy Murray formed the Heroin Control group. / The Enquirer/Tony Jones

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On any Saturday you might find them at a rally, trying to raise awareness ofthe scourge that has nearly wrecked their families.

These moms, who raised their kids in middle-income homes in Hamilton, are now raising their grandchildren.

Their kids are heroin addicts.

Murray and Norris are part of a street-level effort that is popping up across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

Groups like their Heroin Control show up in front of places like the Government Services Center at one of the most visible intersections in downtown Hamilton, or at Covington’s Devou Park, or Veterans Memorial Park in Clermont County’s Union Township.

Their aim is to educate the public about heroin, to push for more services for addicts, put pressure on drug dealers to pack up and leave town, nudge police to bust street dealers and to lend support to families of addicts.

“Our goal is that we can wipe heroin off the street. But everything is political. That’s what we’ve learned,” Norris said.

Murray’s 27-year-old son is trying to recover from six years on heroin. The addiction was a far cry from the athlete who played baseball on club teams through his years at Hamilton High School and often made it into the local paper for the number of home runs he hit, she said.

Murray’s son called home in June saying he wanted to get clean. So Murray and a younger son in Blanchester detoxed him and his girlfriend at the brother’s home over a period of six days in June.

The Enquirer is not naming the son at Murray’s request because she fears that he might be fired from his new job.

There were no rehab beds available in Butler County, Murray said. She called around. There is an eight-month waiting list for men to get into its residential rehab program in the county, according to officials at Sojourner Recovery Services in Hamilton.

Watching her son suffer was almost unbearable. “Hell,” Murray described those days.

“It was like the worst case of flu you can ever imagine having in your life. And then just shakes, just out of the blue. It’s not like a little quiver. It’s like an earthquake went through his body. He was just tired, then antsy, and tired then antsy and then constantly pacing. Then the throwing up, the body aches, the diarrhea, the screaming from just sheer pain.”

The older son, who now has a full-time factory job and lives in Fairfield, has been off heroin since June 23.

“That’s my biggest fear. They are getting back out into the world and it’s only been three months,” Murray said.

“It seems like a long time, but it’s really not.”

Norris’ daughter, a Hamilton High School graduate who was pursuing a nursing degree, was sentenced last week to 180 days in a locked-down drug treatment program in Dayton as a result of a heroin bust this year.

“It’s been a long process,” Norris said. “I never had a clue before. I thought I was the only one.

“For two years I never admitted she was an addict. It was someone else’s fault and it wasn’t hers and it could never be.”

Her 24-year-old daughter, Danielle Combs, already was doing a combination of drugs – cocaine and opiates – but began delving into heroin five years ago after her infant daughter, Brooklynn, died six days after birth. The baby suffocated while sleeping in the bed between her parents.

“The guilt of it was absolutely unbearable,” Norris said of Brooklynn’s death and her daughter’s journey into heroin.

The addiction was so powerful that three years ago after an emergency C-section for the birth of her now 3-year-old son, the daughter left the hospital a day later, bought the drug and returned to the hospital, where she shot up in a public bathroom and passed out on the floor, Norris said.

Norris and Murray found each other on Facebook this summer, about the time Murray’s son decided, at least for now, that he’d had enough of heroin. “From there, it blew up,” Norris said.

They set up a Facebook page, which as of this week had 387 members. By Aug. 2, they held their first rally at the Government Services Center in Hamilton. About 200 people attended. Murray and Norris also rented a booth at Hamilton’s Historic Farmer’s Market on Saturdays through the summer.

They sold neon colored T-shirts to raise enough money to one day be able to buy obituaries for local addicts who have died from overdoses. They shared their stories and listened to others tell theirs.

“Everyone that talks to you knows this person or that person,” Norris said. “People are realizing that they are not alone. It’s not that they have never heard of it. Now, there’s someone out there saying, ‘My kid’s an addict, and there’s nothing wrong with me.’ ” ■

Find them

on Facebook

Find them on Facebook

More than a handful of groups confront the heroin epidemic:

• Heroin Control (Hamilton)

• Nathan’s Awareness (Erlanger)

• Solace Clermont (Clermont County)

• Heroin Support (Northern Kentucky)

• Heroin KILLS You (Northern Kentucky)

• Heroin Recovery 4 U (Cincinnati)

I cover all things Butler and Warren County ranging from breaking news, development and government to courts, crime and watchdog stories. You can reach me at smclaughlin@enquirer.com